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Hundreds of complaints, over fifty cancelled subscriptions to the North Carolina News and Observer, public editor criticizes own newspaper for accepting hatemongering video without first identifying who produced it.

John McCain tells voters that he can bring change. If his performance in the debate last night was any indication of what he considers change, he can't and won't bring the kind of change that most people are looking for.

Most voters I talk to, Republicans and Democrats alike, speak of a new kind of politics. Many Republicans I know aren't looking for policy change as much as they are looking for a change from the fear, hate and anger politics that took over the Republican Party during the Bush/Rove years. If they watched the debate with an honest eye last night, they didn't see a man willing or able to deliver that change.

Bob Dole cuts a sympathetic figure. He makes his lonely treks around North Carolina campaigning for his wife, Elizabeth Dole. He's quite a bit older than Liddy who is 71 and I'm sure all this campaigning is wearing him ragged. He's also a WWII veteran.

With that in mind, you'd think that he would be a voice for other veterans which certainly doesn't explain why in 2004 he chose to lobby for a company that cheated veterans and their families. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, First Command paid Bob Dole's firm $140,000 for Dole to lobby on their behalf. The firm contracted with Dole on September 23, 2004. About two weeks prior to that date the U.S. House of representatives voted to ban the sale of the First Command Mutual Fund to military families.

Caption-gate with the Pac Man continues. In the latest entry of this continuing saga, I've been disrespected yet again. On 22 September, McCrory posted on his blog announcing his newest and again, un-captioned TV ad. Still seeking an answer to his refusal to use closed captioning for the hearing impaired, I left a respectful question in the comment section on his blog.

Like you, I’m awestruck by the sudden implosion of our financial markets over the past weeks. The magnitude of the crisis before us is unprecedented but the storm clouds have been on the horizon for some time. Here’s an excerpt from an economic policy piece I authored last December:

Here’s what scares me about our economy……the collapse in the mortgage/ derivative securities market has begun rippling through the economy. Only $50 billion of the estimated $400 billion in losses sustained by investors in exotic mortgage/derivative securities have been accounted for. Our largest financial institutions have been weakened. Given the rapid decline in the value of the dollar during the Bush Administration’s unchecked stewardship of our economy, there is a very real concern that the Euro may displace the dollar as the gold standard held by investors and central banks worldwide. Should that happen, the dollar would weaken even further and, to put it simply, our economic strength would be undermined dramatically.

Sinclair Broadcasting has yanked false ads attacking Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue from its broadcasting lineup. The ads, sponsored by the Republican Governor's Association and welcomed by Republican gubernatorial candidate, Pat McCrory, were found to be factually incorrect.

That leaves quite a few other broadcasting companies that are allowing the false ads to run. If you see one running in your market, please leave a comment here. The false ads make inaccurate statements about the tax rate in North Carolina rising since 2000.

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